SA rounds out top ten for Game of Thrones piracy

The season premiere of Game of Thrones has finally aired, and predictably there’s been huge demand for illegal streaming and downloading the episode.

In fact, Torrent Freak reported that the most popular torrent had over 200 000 users and counting sharing the file.

After inspecting the locations of users downloading the file over 12 hours, the website found some interesting results. For one, South Africa was in the top ten when it came to illegally getting in on the action.

“The show is particularly popular in Australia (12.5%), India (9.7%), United States (8.5%) and the United Kingdom (6.9%),” Torrent Freak noted.

“The top 10 is completed by the Philippines, Canada, the Netherlands, Greece, South Africa and Saudi Arabia,” it continued.

However, the website clarified that the data was skewed due to time differences, as the sample of 10 000 users took place over a 12 hour period. It also noted that HBO was available at no charge over the weekend in the USA, which could’ve skewed results further.

The website said that the latest episode would be a contender for most pirated show of the year, but noted that it didn’t break last year’s “swarm” record of over 258 000 users.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Game of Thrones was the most pirated show of the year – the series has won the title from Torrent Freak for four years running.

Last year saw the series hit roughly 14.4 million downloads, while The Walking Dead (6.9 million) and The Big Bang Theory (4.4 million) rounded out the top ten.